I have a confession to make. When I bake and cook with eggs, I often break those eggs with one hand.

“What kind of lame confession is that?” you ask.

Well, the real confession is that when I do, I feel very chef-y. Very professional. As if I were on the Food Network with my own show. Or something. It doesn’t matter if anyone sees me or not. I see me. At that moment, I see myself as an eggs-pert. Even now, though I can imagine you thinking how silly I am, all I know is that it makes me happy.

Another Eggs-ample: Last week, I was cracking eggs for stir fried rice and a little shell got in the bowl. This reminded me of one of my favorite tips I read somewhere years ago. If you get eggshells in your bowl, use another piece of eggshell to fish it out. It works every time! It’s like a magnet 🙂 Now…I suppose I SHOULD point out that you SHOULD first wash the eggshell you are about to dip in your raw eggs, um, but I never have. In fact, I’m not certain if it will work then.

High Eggs-pectations: I love, truly love, to make a perfectly cooked fried egg. Strange but true, I had the goal of frying up perfect eggs since I was a teenager. Getting the white cooked through yet not tough, leaving the yolk runny and just set at the edges, NOT breaking the yolk. To hand up a perfect egg to one of my family or friends just. feels. good. The steps to making a perfectly cooked, and pretty, sunny-side-up egg is on the right in my recipes. Go ahead, be obsessive. Be Egg-septional.

1. You can now leave comments without your email address and without approval

2. You can LIKE a post or a recipe or one of my old MySpace blogs

3. You can see how many hits the blog has had. Don’t get too excited about the number 🙂 If you know as little about blogs as I seem to, it would appear as though hundreds have come. Every time someone visits and every time they view any of the posts or pages it’s a “hit.” Thank you, Peeps, for all those lovely hits.

4. I edited the Easy Enchilada recipe because when I looked it over it didn’t appear so easy! I have streamlined it and hopefully simplified it a bit.

I am certain I’ll add more to this as I modify through the weeks.

Thank you and Goodnight!

Share this:

Like this:

I love lasagna and I should. I am half Italian and I have watched and helped my wonderful mom, Lois, cook lasagna, pasta and pasta sauces since I was tiny. My mom made homemade sauce and the lasagna noodles and so do I.

A few years ago I made ricotta for the first time and, of course, we had a beautiful lasagna after that. We were all very impressed that not only was the sauce and the noodles homemade but now the cheese?! Lovely.

That evening, my daughter had a friend over and she enthusiastically told her friend about the lasagna and how it was totally homemade. The friend responded, “Wow, you grew your own tomatoes?”

I think my husband took that as a friendly challenge and we started our tomato beds the next spring. The real joke, of course, is that I don’t like tomatoes. Not. At. All. I love everything made with them but the taste and texture of the actual fruit…nope. My mom thinks I am a mutant.

So, the other night I accidentally left a fresh, unopened gallon of milk out overnight. GRR. Not happy and yet, when life, (or yourself), gives you undrinkable milk, make yourself some ricotta cheese. That’s what I did and we’ll be having lasagna this week. I’m a happy girl and my family will be even happier. Lasagna recipe here.

Share this:

Like this:

When friends visit, I’m usually working in the kitchen. I have them pull up a stool, drink a cup of tea and watch me clean off the counters.

Why would I do this, you ask? Because my counters are usually cluttered and needing a wipe-down and since I’m embarrassed about that, I can’t relax until they are somewhat clear and at least CLEAN. Good thing my friends literally overlook that and love hanging out with me in the hub of my home. Of course, it also helps that they know that everything they eat off of is clean.

Many a lovely hour has been spent with friends at my Irish counter in Greystones, Co. Wicklow and at my American counter in Portland, OR. It’s the place where events of the day, recipes, ideas, laughs and thoughts of the heart are exchanged and burdens are shared so the load feels lighter in the end.

This is my virtual kitchen counter and you’re welcome to hang out with me. Come listen to the bits and pieces of my day or hear about something I’ve discovered or copy a recipe that I think everyone. must. have. You’ll find yourself wading through my own personal ramblings but I’d love to hear how things work for you or what ideas you have come up with because then I can incorporate them into MY life repertoire.

Share this:

Like this:

Every so often I think about deleting my old Myspace account then I remember all my old blogs and the comments they generated. It’s a little slice of my life in 2007-08. Most of the responses are from coworkers and much of what is said is silly but it’s a record of little and big things that were going on at the time.Posts

Last year I copied and pasted all my blogs into Word. I am so happy I did because yesterday I went onto MySpace to see if I had missed anything. Signing in forced me to “accept” my new MySpace format and, whoa! no blogs, no comments, no photos, nothing. Hm. MySpace says that nothing has been deleted but it will be a while before we can access our blogs. Good thing I don’t have to wait.

Yay, God. Jesus saves and so did I.

My blogs from Sept 2007 through Mar 2008, they are on the right in the MySpace Blogs page.

You can readthem if you like. You know, if you are super bored or the TV isn’t working and your nook is at the office and your dog won’t play with you because you don’t have food in your hands…